This metal hell
by Meeswa
Summary: A AU fic based off the comic panel I've put as the cover image, I realize that you probably can't read it so I'll explain further inside, centers very heavily around the ship "Fender" In case you hadn't already guessed judging from my track record on this site.
1. Prologue

**Authors note: I said I'd explain further so here we go: This whole fic is based around the plot line from the Futurama comics 7#, and if you want a bit more citation you can go read it yourself, but in basic its a alternate universe where robots have taken over the earth by the time Fry wakes up from his thousand year sleep, and the direct quote from a panel in the comic book said by Bender is "And that's where I come in! I have become your most trusted friend and confident in rebuilding a society of humans, robots, and aliens living harmoniously together!" That's the basics folks ,there's more to the story so you can read on where its probably explained to a extent or like I said the comic books. **

When the scientists of the 20ths century built cryogenic tubes they didn't exactly build them to last, or well for that matter, sure the outer casing could withstand at least a few bomb hits but bombs or not 1 time out of 10 times the cargo inside died for no apparent reason other then the fact that humans simply aren't naturally designed to be frozen for years upon years let alone _1000 years_.

In fact nearly 80% of the test subjects died after only about a week or so of being frozen and only after many albeit expendable lives where lost did they 'perfect' the technology to a point where they could get people to live for over a year and called the project finished, mostly because they had run out of funding and random junkies off the street.

That's why when this particular cyro tube cracks open not a second after the timer on its front has finished counting down and the almost poisonous air reaches the occupants lungs does he not, twitch, breath, or react in anyway other then falling out of the tubes now open door and laying limp on the hard packed earth below for almost ten seconds before suddenly he coughs, small weak coughs at first, but they quickly grow in loudness and the defrostie manages to get up onto his elbows and continue to cough his throat raw and perhaps taste a little blood, but he's lucky, terribly lucky his lungs haven't collapsed that is.

This goes on for what must be minutes the defrostie coughing up all manner of fluids onto the earth below, eyes clenched shut, chest heaving up and down until he finally reaches a point where he can breath for maybe half a second without coughing and rolls onto his side, eyes cracking open blearily for all its worth, considering that all he can see is blobs right now, however, his hearing is working perfectly fine and he hears a click about two meters away from him, and his eyes shoot entirely open and look in the direction of where he thinks he heard it come from.

His vision is still terribly blurry, but there's someone standing in front of him that he can make out among the other blobs, and as his vision adjusts he realizes that their holding some kind of gun pointed strait at his rather orange head, and not only that but since he's looking directly down the barrel he can see a redish light slowly getting brighter in brighter inside said barrel and suddenly all those science fiction comics hes read as a kid are telling him to _run_.

So he runs, well its more of a hobble out of the way accompanied by a terrified yelp as he jumps into what could very well be sharp rusty metal but it gets the job done and he just manages to miss the small explosion that that presumed laser hand gun creates just where he was not five seconds ago, but they holder of said laser gun doesn't waste a second and immediately re-aims at the by now terrified defrostie firing again, and the red head gets yet another split second to jump out of the way, suddenly feeling very limber for someone who's been asleep for a thousand years and if being fired upon wasn't enough of a incentive to get moving whoever is firing at him doesn't look human at all, sure it has the basic human shape but now that his vision is clearing up he can see that it couldn't be human, not in a thousand year- well.

He doesn't have time to dwell on the looks of his attacker though because he's busy dodging the second shot fired at him, again letting out more noises of distress as he barely misses getting hit and shakily gets to his feet, breaking into a hobbled run through the scrap yard he seems to be in, but whatever's attacking him is fast and runs after him with much greater speed and fires two more shots, both which the red head dodges by a hair, until he's cornered, literally, he's come up on some kind of concrete wall and is forced to back up against a literal corner as his attacker moves in, slowly though, almost leisurely as if that whole show of speed was just to impress and now is moving in at a unbearable pace, gun still held high until he is mere feet from the red head who thinks he either might panic or pass out at this point.

The defrostie isn't even sure why he's not dead yet, the being in front of him could have killed him seconds ago but he just stands in front of red head holding the gun at his head, who is currently frozen to the spot, afraid that if he makes the slightest move he'll be killed, and now that his vision has cleared presumably from adrenaline he can see his attacker clearly, and he really wishes he couldn't, because it is _not _human and as those square pupils stare him down he notices the lines that presumably form its mouth curve up into a sadistic smile.

"Welcome to the world of tomorrow, meatbag."


	2. Ch1: Defrostie Duty

**Authors Note: The first chapter, including all that I ****explained in the last Authors note, there's also some BS about a story written by Fry, and by BS I mean important plot thingamabob, but to avoid spoilers I won't say exactly what its for I guess.**

Well, this is what years of delivering pizza and getting cheated on multiple times has lead up to I guess, Fry would have preferred a happier ending, preferably one involving a high rise apartment and topless ladies, but as he stares down the barrel of the slowly heating up weapon his nerd senses kick in and he realizes that getting blown to pieces by a robot with a laser gun isn't exactly the worst way to go out, kinda cool actually, still death isn't exactly on his to do list either way so he still screams and cowers, covering his face hoping for a quick death and all that terrified squirming hes doing in the corner just so happens to dislodge something from his back pocket and in that split second when those metallic digits pull down on the trigger and the pile of papers falls to ground the movement somehow manages to distract the robot and as he glances down to look at what has just fallen from Fry's back pocket his aim is thrown off, just barely, he hits the wall above Fry causing debris to fall all over him and well that's not particularly pleasurable its not necessarily lethal.

If Fry hadn't been near panicking at the moment he probably would have been wondering how a robot could have missed him at point blank range, I mean, aren't they supposed to have futuristic targeting systems or something, well technically robots aren't even supposed to exist actually, this is the twenty first century right?

Only when the rubble's done raining down on Fry and he's just curled up in some kind of fetal position on the ground, hands over his neck, miraculously still relatively unharmed does he realize that someones talking, someone with this kind of high voice that wavers up and down and just kind of spells out insanity.

Slowly, Fry lifts his head up and looks in the direction of the noise, and where there was once one robot there's now two, the one that had just shot at him about five or so times was still there, but there was another now that looked marginally different, he was red instead of gray and had a less rigid looking build, and not to mention wielding knifes.

"What's the matter Bender? Can't hit a flimsy little cornered human?" The second robot says in a taunting voice, and glances at Fry making him duck again, but thankfully it was only a glance and he goes back to taunting the apparent 'Bender' "No wonder you're on defrostie duty, your aims so shaky you'd probably get disassembled by anything stronger then a lethargic sack of meat." The red robots laughing again, maniacal, insane, terrifying, take your pick of words how it sounds to Fry.

"That's a lie and you know it Roberto!" The apparent 'Bender' shouts, seemingly enraged as he points a accusing finger at the red robot. "If you hadn't come in here and thrown off my aim I wouldn't have missed."

"You shouldn't have even been firing at him in the first place, you know you're supposed to collect the humans that come out of the tubes _alive_ unless they're too deformed to walk, then go ahead and shoot." Roberto replies, still mockingly and Fry swears he sees Bender's fingers flex as he glares at Roberto, eyes narrowing menacingly, but at least their not paying attention to him, in fact maybe he could just crawl away if he's lucky.

"I thought he _was _deformed and useless, I was just going to put him out of his misery." Bender replies, crossing his arms and rolling his eyes as if it was obvious. Roberto seems quite taken aback.

"Bender! That choice of words could get you disassembled back at base, you're lucky I can hold my voice processor for you about stuff like this." Roberto replied, Bender's nonchalant expression fading in a second and Fry might dare says he looks embarrassed, he guesses robots aren't allowed to say stuff even slightly leaning towards a mercy killing, why are there even robots around anyway, is he dreaming? Last things he remembers is falling out of a chair, maybe he hit his head real hard and now he's hallucinating robots. "Besides you _kept _shooting after it after it was proven that it could walk, I was watching, and I could get you sentenced to acid pools with all this." Roberto threatens further, and Bender looks pissed off again.

"Well it doesn't matter now does it? Besides I haven't gotten any action in at least a month, everything that comes out those tubes is usually dead anyway, we should just blow them all up and save time." Bender responds, irritated, still glaring with quite a lot of hatred at the red robot.

"Eh, the entertainment industry won't have it, we need something live and screaming to have at glorx matches otherwise its no fun, and lethargic defrosties are easier to catch then rebels armed with magnets." Roberto replies, and for the first time since the robots have been talking they glance at Fry who may have started a effort to crawl away, which was all for naught anyway since Roberto immediately walks over to the red head making him back up slightly a small whimpering noise coming from the back of his throat, and he decides that he likes 'Bender' a lot more then this one, at least he just looks a little pissed at things this one looks _down right crazy _and being face to face with it is honestly making Fry want to scream again, but he thinks better of it.

"Come on, its high time we be getting back to base anyway." Roberto says without breaking eye contact with Fry only making the red head even more nervous, and since the robots got Fry so distracted he manages to get some kind of pair of handcuffs on him when he's not looking, and its already too late for him to even think of squirming out when he hears the click of them being attached to his wrists and looks down vaguely confused for about half a second before he's rather roughly pulled to his feet by some kind of chain held by the red robot and attached to the handcuffs.

Both the robots begin to start walking without a word and Fry is forced to follow, and he plans on being complaint at least until he wakes up from this hell until he remembers something fell out of his back pocket when the robot shot at him.

"Wait!" Fry shouts before he can stop himself making the two robots turn to look at him. "My story, its not in my back pocket anymore I can't feel it!" Fry continues with panic, turning around in circles trying to get a look at his back pocket considering he can't use his hands, it doesn't matter if this is real or not that story is something he's been working on forever and he _needs _get it back.

"Get a load of this spinning flesh sack!" Roberto laughs manically for a moment before getting a hold of himself and pulling on the chain again causing Fry to come lurching forward, almost falling face down but yet he still struggles more and try's to go back to the rubble pile he was in, it must be there, he swore he felt something fall out of his pocket when Bender shot at him. Roberto yanks again and Fry yelps being pulled forward yet again but that still doesn't stop him, humans could be so stubborn sometimes.

Bender lets out a rather exasperated groan and rolls his optics, mumbling under his breath how he's meant for better things then human wrangling and walks past Fry to the rubble pile, searches through the rocks for perhaps ten seconds before pulling out a albeit torn and dusty stapled together pile of papers, and then turns back to Fry and shoves it rather violently into the humans back pocket making him wince.

"Will you walk now?" Bender asks, starring down Fry who nods hastily in return, despite the fact that he probably never will want to find out what a 'glorx match' is, but it seems he has no choice and at least he's got his story now.

"Then lets gooooooo already!" Roberto complains yanking on the chain once again.

"Hey that's my line!" Bender responds somewhat angrily crossing his arms and glaring at the other robot as two of them begin to walk and one is dragged along.

In fact that's all that's said for at least ten minutes, the only thing breaking the silence being the sound of footsteps on the hard packed earth as they move, and Fry really gets the chance to take in his surroundings, it looks like their in some kind of ruined city actually, and as they walk and the pain in his feet and other parts begins to feel all to real and he realizes that this isn't a dream at all, It can't be, he's too awake to be sleeping right now, and with that realization the red head is flung into a all new deeper kind of terror that's more like despair, because he's flimsy a human in a world seemingly dominated by robots and that' all he knows, mostly because he's pretty sure if he opened his mouth right now he'd surely be cut up by all those knifes that Roberto is carrying.

"Oye, I don't see why we don't just open the cryotubes ourselves instead of waiting for them to count down, the base is so far away from those ruins to be making this many trips." Bender finally says after another ten minutes of walking.

"You know we can't fiddle around with those cryotubes without killing whats inside, their using some kind of forgotten program to run, 'windows' I think it was called." Roberto replies, somehow managing to maintain a at least slightly threatening voice whenever he talks, hell he could probably be saying he wants to hug kittens and it'd still sound horrifying.

"Then why not just haul them all back to the nearest base and deal with them there, certainly cut down on all this walking." Bender offers, well more of complains, guess he doesn't like straining his gears so much all the time, and Roberto laughs again.

"Because its cheaper just to have robots like _you _stand around out there all day!" Roberto taunts in between laughs, only seeming to further the other robots rage his optics narrowing menacingly.

"Hey, don't forget you're on cryo duty too!" Bender fires back while Roberto glares and Fry's beginning to think that the two robots might end up killing each other and probably him before they even get back to this 'base'.

"Yeah but I'm only here for another month before its back to the front lines slashing up rebels by the dozen." Roberto replies and waves a knife around with his free hand for emphasis making Fry wince slightly from his position behind the two bots. "Meanwhile you'll probably have this job until you power down for good!"

"You just watch Roberto, I'll make my way to the front lines before you even leave this backwater base!" Bender retorts determinedly, shaking his hand gun in the air for emphasis, and Roberto just laughs more.

"Bender I hate to break it to you but you're a _bending unit_," Roberto says even though he was very much enjoying breaking it to him so to speak. "And a old model too, the bending unit 2.0s came out a right after you where built and soon the Bendernators will be here too, you weren't even built for maiming in the first place." Roberto bites back, while not literally does he bite Bender but he may as well have because the gray automaton shuts up after that, his mixture a expression of seething rage and I dare say hurt.

"In fact you would have been disassembled months ago if I didn't vouch for you, always holding my voice processor about your miscalculations, show some appreciation for the only robot that even dares to call you a friend why don't you." Bender's still not retorting, and just walks silently along the other robot and human, glaring with some kind of deep menace and eventually Roberto loses interest in reminding Bender of his place and goes on about how good he is with knifes and how the front line needs him and his unique skin peeling techniques.

"Whatever you say, _buddy_." Bender scoffs under his non existent breath saying that last bit with as much venom and robotically possible.

**Authors**** note: Well I hope you're enjoying the story so far, and yes If you hadn't been reminded of it yet this story is Fender, and if you're not into that stuff and just want to know what i'd be like if the robots from Futurama ruled the world I'd like to apologize, but if you are I'll assume you'll enjoy the Fendery bits which means large parts of this fic.**


	3. Ch2: You're all I've got

**Authors Note: Second chapter where the whole Fendery bits start to take off I suppose, other then that not much to say i guess, other then i wanted to try and properly portray Fry's terror and this his relaxation when Bender starts to speak to him in a friendly matter.**

When robots build things, they build them all the same, no differences to the next thing being built if it can be helped, that's why all the forts, bases, complexes take your pick, look almost exactly the same regardless of their rank or location, the only thing setting them apart being the base number, and the robots inside, and even without seeing the eerie similarities that make everything the robots build look like it was simply copied and pasted Fry still gulps involuntarily as they approach the huge complex because it just looks plain threatening and unfriendly, simply because robots have no sense of feng shui so to speak, a human when faced with a empty room would feel then need to furnish it, a robot would simply place what is completely necessary in the room.

Its much like how a human even in times of war would decorate things with flags and a few other small things, robots however have no need, and the walls and battlements are barren and flat, gray, lifeless, all built for maximum efficiency by computerized minds, in a sense perfect, except to a human, who while being stared down by such blank walls feels nervous, incompatible with such things.

Not a word is said as the two robots and human prisoner approach the building and the gates seem to open by themselves, permitting them entry into the complex as they slowly walk, and Fry stares, perplexed with fear and terror at the faceless building that they're entering and as their walking through the open gates he sees two robots standing on the battlements presumably controlling the gate as they stare down at the trio with glowing unfeeling and unblinking eyes.

Silence still rules as the gate closes behind them, Bender walking with his hands tucked behind his back Roberto still holding onto Fry's 'leash' with malice, yanking violently whenever the human fell behind.

The area they are now in is a mixture of outside and inside, large girders running from the battlements to the building in the center of the complex a large overhang coming out from said building which has a much smaller door, more guard robots standing in front of it that barely glance at the trio as they walk through that doorway too, a gray hallway facing them and the two robots waste no time in walking down dragging their human cargo along.

The hallway opens up into larger room in not too much time, some kind of desk on the far side where another robot sits.

"Yo, I've got another defrostie over here!" Roberto shouts to the robot sitting at the desk, who looks up from the computer screen in front of him, he seems bored and perhaps a little disgusted at the prospect of a human in his presence, but doesn't comment and simply presses a button on the desk that opens up another door with a large sign above with a phrase in binary written on it, they've passed plenty of signs so far but their all in binary, leaving Fry all the more alienated and clueless to his surroundings.

That doesn't really matter though because as they enter the new room and the door shuts and locks ominously behind them and the use of the room soon becomes apparent to the red head.

I say its a room but its more of a maze of hallways full of various prison cells, but unlike a human prison everything is silent as they walk down one of the hallways, and Fry can't help but glance into the cells as they pass them, most are empty, some contain robots that either don't notice him or glare at him with some kind of deep malice, and most unnerving of all there was the occasional human occupant, non of those looked directly at Fry, they where mostly in the corner of the cells and the ones that didn't have their faces hidden stared blankly forward, their eyes looking unhealthily yellow and blank matching the rest of their bodies that looked barely kept alive.

It didn't take long for the trio to reach the empty cell that they planned on keeping Fry in, the two robots opening it, decuffing the red head, and shoving him into the cage hastily, making Fry yelp as hes thrown painfully onto the bare concrete.

"Come on, I don't wanna stand around here all day this place smells like human." Roberto says as Fry picks himself off the ground, turning around fast enough just to see the two robots walk away from the cell, and just like that he's left alone for the first time since he was thrown into this metal hell, and he thinks he could scream, he wants to, in the vain hope that someone would answer his plea, but he thinks that if he makes any noise the silence will get ticked off and eat him or something, as preposterous as that sounds.

So instead of screaming he leans back first against the wall of actually quite small cell and slowly slides into a sitting position, his head pounding presumably from stress, and he's left alone with his thoughts, whether he just sat there in perpetuated terror or actually tried to puzzle out his surroundings is anyone's guess, but he's sat in that position for at least a hour just starring at the floor below him before anything of interest happens.

And by anything of interest I mean _anything _the world around him seems paused, the low light level lights above him not even flickering and the place is so silent that anytime you even shift your position everyone ten cells down can probably hear it.

Fry glances upward for the first time in perhaps a hour, thinking he's seen something from the corner of his eye, and he was right, there's something or should I say someone looking at him all but his head hiding out where the red head can't see, and he jumps, not like in the air or anything but he definitely starts and the robot walks out into the open wearing a intimidating expression that Fry wouldn't have caught because its actually quite dark in the prison block if it weren't for the fact that his eyes and mouth glowed.

"Alright I'm gonna be brief here, meatbag." Bender says as he uses some kind of key to unlock the small cell that's only about two meters in length and Fry backs up against the wall as much as he can.

"A-About what?" Fry asks, never taking his eyes off the bending unit, the thought of trying to escape comes to mind, but the robot is blocking the door and did I mention wielding the laser hand gun again.

"That lying scum Roberto has told everyone that you're his catch, thus he gets whatever valuables are on you, but I'm gonna collect them first." Bender explains and then lifts his gun to the humans head. "So drop em."

Fry stumbles, having a gun pointed directly at your head isn't really something to help you relax, but without little thought thanks to getting mugged on the streets of New York so many times he takes out his wallet and chucks it at Bender, cringing as soon as he does.

Bender catches the wallet flawlessly immediately flipping through it, lowering the gun so he can use both of his hands, and it takes him about half a second to throw the wallet to the ground cursing.

"You idiot, there's nothing valuable in here! Only outdated pieces of paper." Bender says with malice making Fry back up further because the robots raised the gun again, and he fears for his life for perhaps the fifteenth time today.

"I-I don't have anything else!" Fry shouts covering his face, and waits for the imminent explosion but instead the robot lowers the gun again, looking inquisitive all the sudden.

"What about that pile of papers I got for you back there?" Bender says slowly, curiously.

"Why would you want that?" Fry asks, perhaps slightly less panicked, and releases a lung full of air he didn't know he was holding.

"Listen bud, when your in my position you gotta be thorough, and unless you want me to start searching you from head to tow _myself _you better hand over those papers." Bender threatens, and Fry decides he better comply, and pulls the stack of his blood sweat and tears and holds them out to Bender, who takes them wordlessly, and instead of running away with his loot, he does something a little preposterous, he shoves the gun in his chest compartment, and walks into the small cell with Fry and sits down right next to him, shocking the red head thoroughly as a robot that was trying to kill him not five seconds ago is now sitting inches from as casually as if they had known each other for years.

Bender pulls open the stapled together papers and Fry's beginning think he's about to attempt to read all of that right in front of him despite how long that would take him when he flips through it faster then it would take Fry to read one sentence, guess robots have hyper reading technologies.

Its silent after that, Bender looking at the story with I dare say shock and contemplation for at least a few seconds before slowly turning to look at Fry.

"So, you're Fry?" Bender asks looking at the red head, resting his equivalent of a elbow on his knee so he can rest the side of his face in his palm.

"How do you know my name?!" Fry asks, panicked for a moment while Bender rolls his eyes.

"Its on the cover of your story here, dullhorn." Bender states and shows Fry for emphasis, and as it turns out his name is written right on the cover, go figure.

"Oh, heheh, yeah I guess it is." Fry responds twiddling his fingers giving a nervous smile. "So, eh, you're Bender then? Unless that's some kind of nickname you don't like, or something!" Fry continues panicked for a second, maybe that Roberto fellow just called him that because he didn't like it, he wouldn't be surprised, he remembered hearing something that 'bender' was slang for gay in England, although he could have just dreamed that.

"No its just my name." Bender responds, maybe slightly amused at the red heads nervousness.

The conversation drifts off into silence after that, but oddly enough Bender doesn't leave and Fry doesn't jump out the obviously open door, its like they've both forgot the rest of the world excised and they only care about each other and what the other might say to them.

"Bender?" Fry asks out of the blue, and the robot glances at him. "What year is it? Whats the date? Whats happening? Why are there robots everywhere?" It all comes spewing from Fry's mouth, every question he can think of, and Bender's confused for a moment but he figures he'll just answer them in order.

"2999, December 31st, not much, robots overthrew humans a few decades ago, any other questions?" Bender responds, looking at Fry curiously, that's a bunch of strange questions to ask but he supposes being frozen kinda takes you out of it.

Fry looks like he might faint, his jaw dropping as he looks at Bender.

"My god, a thousand years." Fry finally says running a hand through his hair, that is getting quite dirty at this point, and Bender whistles.

"Man your ass is old, I didn't think those tubes could keep a meatbag like you alive for that long." Bender responds.

"Well, not just my ass is old I suppose its all of me- but hey wait did you say robots overthrew humans?" Fry says as stage two of his shock kicks in because he's not only a thousand years in the future but there are _also_ killer robots everywhere.

"Yup!" Bender says that with pride despite how shocked Fry looks. "Killed most of them and any other biological being we could find." Fry gulps.

"Okay... Are you gonna kill me now then?" Fry replies with a hint of terror, suddenly remembering how many times this robot had shot at him today.

"Nah, I'd get in some pretty big trouble if I did." Bender responds and then stands up. "Well I better be off."

"Wait!" Fry shouts before he can stop himself making Bender turn to look at him. "You're the only friend I have!" Bender hesitates for perhaps half a second before replying.

"You really want a robot for a friend?" He asks, tentative.

"Yeah ever since I was six." Fry replies, awfully casually considering the near death circumstances that he's probably in.

"Well, alright, but seriously I've got to go otherwise I might get caught here, but I think I've got a proposition for you, so don't die just yet." Bender says and before Fry can responds he takes off, but a second later he reappears with a I dare say embarrassed look on his face "Forgot to lock you back in, oops." He says with a small laugh at the end and despite the grim circumstances Fry laughs a bit too, genuinely smiling for the first time since he was thrown into this hell, and Bender wastes no time and locks up the cell, and then sprints off without a word.

Of course his happiness is short lived since Fry soon remembers that he's going to take part in a 'glorx match' whatever that is and he's still a prisoner, but there's a small bit of hope where there was once terror thanks to Bender.

**Parallels**** are a wonderful thing.**


End file.
